If you’re a hip hop artist, you have needed or used graphics for your album and mixtape covers. Some of you have used unskilled hands for this work and believe me, it shows. Enter the Mixtape Cover King, one of the dopest graphic artists on the scene. He took some time out to give Indie Hip Hop this interview about what he does.
1. Let’s cut right to the chase. Let our readers know how important good looking graphics are to their cover art and promotions.
The music business is all about your image, and first impression matters So it’s mandatory that you have professional graphics that represent your brand the right way. Your cover art is the first thing people see before they hear your music so your graphics need to be professional and attention grabbing to build curiosity in the viewer and make them want to listen to your music. So pretty much your cover art is your bait that paints a visual picture of what fans or potential fans can expect from the project and reels them in to listen to your music. .
Your graphics are just as important as your music and they play a big role in your music marketing when you promote your music. Your cover art can make or break your project.When the last time you downloaded a mixtape that had a low quality mixtape cover.lol That just goes to show you the power of your cover art and lets you know it helps music fans decided if they should l download, buy,or listen to your music
Artist have to remember there are thousands of music artist releasing music daily, so you have to make sure you standout and how you do that is by having hi quality custom cover art. Having a unprofessional mixtape cover or single cover can make your music and you look cheap.
An artist is only cheating themselves when then try to cut corners are be cheap when it comes to their graphics because it destroys their image and brand even if they have quality music.
2. What got you started in this game?
What got me started in graphics was: I do music also and one day I was online searching for a mixtape cover designers who could create artwork for my mixtape and give it that urban street feel,and all he kept coming across was corporate graphic designers who had no idea what to put on a mixtape cover or knock off designer who made copy and paste covers.
So after searching on Google for days and running into half ass designers I was like, fuck it I’m gonna figure out how to do this shit myself, and there is a big market for mixtape cover designers because there are thousands of artist dropping music daily and I knew if I could get good at it I could start charging artist to design their covers.
So I got online and started to research how to create a mixtape cover, ended up watching hundreds of YouTube videos, and reading hundreds of articles everyday until I learned how to use photoshop.
After creating my first cover for my lil bro’s mixtapes, and sharing it online on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, people just started contacting me left and right complimenting my work and asking if I could make them a mixtape cover for their project.
After receiving over 100 request in a week from artist all over the world asking me to make them a mixtape cover, I knew I could turn into a business and finally get legit and take care of my family the right way.
So I decided to invest my money from hustling into buying a professional website, photoshop, and marketing for his business and Mixtape Cover King was born.In just 4 short years I’ve managed to create over 10,000 designs worldwide and have created designs for Kevin Gates, Migos, Livemixtapes, Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes, Hot New Hip Hop, Spinrilla, and Datpiff.
Creating mixtape covers takes a certain type of designer. You have to be able to bring the street feel to the graphic world most designers weren’t out in the streets so they have no idea what to put on a mixtape cover. I do!
3. What other services do you provide?
At Mixtape Cover King, not only do we specialize in creating mixtape covers, single covers, flyers, and logos, we also create custom jewelry, write professional bios, and press releases to get artist press coverage.
4. What kind of hip hop are you listening too these days?
Right now I’m listening to a lot of Midwest music. They next to blow. I work with tons of artists from around the world and I feel like Omaha Nebraska, is next to blow. They have their own sound and it’s nothing like the stuff you hear everyone doing in the industry. If you go Youtube and type in Omaha, Nebraska rappers, Or Bizness Films or Vado Films you will see what what I’m talking about. Check it out. By the way, I’m also part owner of Game Spittin Ent with Joe Jack so be looking out for real music #ImNotARapperImAGameSpitta
Here’s how you can contact the Mixtape Cover King
www.Twitter.com/MixtapeCoverPro
www.Youtube.com/MixtapeCoverKing
Check out the Mixtape Cover King’s before and after work…
BEFORE
AFTER
